The present invention relates to improvements in electrical control devices for operating such things as tv video games and X-Y translating mechanisms, and in particularly to an improved joy stick assembly.
Joy stick assemblies for use with tv video grames for controlling X-Y translations of an image on a tv screen are known in the art. Conventionally, such an assembly comprises a hand holdable box-like housing and a control lever or joy stick extending through a wal of the housing. Switches or contacts within the housing are electrically connected with an input to the video game, and are arranged to be actuated or contacted by the joy stick in response to manual manipulation of the same, thereby to control bidirectional horizontal and/or vertical movement of an image on the screen.
A disadvantage of such joy stick assemblies is that, in an attempt to fabricate them in an economical manner so that the selling price of video games will be within reach of the average purchaser, the resulting assembly is often quite flimsy and prone to breakage, particularly in the hands of a child. In addition, such assemblies are often quite spongy in their operation, with the result that an operator does not have a "feel" for the game being played, while at the same time movement of the image on the tv screen in response to manipulation of the joy stick is inaccurate and slow.
In addition to use with tv video games, joy stick assemblies also find use in industrial manufacturing operations, such for example as with thermal compression of ultrasonic bonders which use an X-Y translating mechanism having a platform which supports a semiconductor chip and moves the same relative to and below a bonding tool of the bonder, so that electrical lead wires can be connected to the chip at various locations thereon. Such a translating mechanism is operated by two motors, one for driving the platform back and forth along one line and another for moving the platform back and forth along a second line perpendicular to the first.
The control means for operating the motors of such bonders often comprises a joy stick assembly manipulated by a machine operator as he views the work area of the chip through a microscope. Conventional joy stick assemblies for this purpose have been quite complicated in construction, and have used potentiometers or other switching devices for varying the voltages applied to the motors, so that the motors stop and go as a function of the change in position of the joy stick. Because of the complex nature of such assemblies, they are costly to produce and assemble and must often be repaired or replaced due to faults in the parts thereof.